Brave Soldier Girl
by ToastWeaselofDOOM
Summary: Lin Bei Fong copes with the sudden removal of her bending. Bonus drabble at the end. Mild AU ending-wise. Headcanon abound.


**Title:** Brave Soldier Girl  
**Fandom:** Legend of Korra  
**Characters/Pairing**: Lin BeiFong, Tenzin, cameo of Toph, Aang, Bumi, and Kya/ LinxTenzin is you squint and tilt your head to the left  
**Rating:** T for language  
**Summary**: Lin Bei Fong copes. (The summary sucks, I'm trying not to spoil anybody)  
**Spoilers for:** Episode Ten  
**Author's Note:** I stuck the knife in and I twisted. Hard. Get the tissues, folks. Thank to Mary for the beta! There's a bonus little drabble at the end! :D

* * *

They left her there in the rain.

The slate beneath her head was cold, the metal armor she wore hard and unyeilding. She felt drained, both physically and mentally, like she had felt the day had spent training on metalbending wires only be assigned a triple overnight shift on the beat by her mother. Her body was heavy, each of her limbs a hundred pound bag of cornflour. She tried to move but couldn't-her muscles refused to cooperate.

What was worse, she could not hear the ground. The rocks usually spoke to her, she always knew their strengths and weakness. Her armor always sang as she moved. But she could hear nothing except the dull roar of the rain.

For the first time in her life, Lin Bei Fong felt completely and utterly helpless.

That was how the Air Acolytes found her. Splayed out across the wet rock, weak and shivering. They carried her inside, stripped her of her now useless armor, and get her bundled up in a bed to warm up.

By midnight she had a fever. She coughed and hacked and lost the meal the Air Acolyte ladies had coaxed into her. Her sheets coated with sick, the women had no choice but to move her to another room.

At some point a cool cloth was placed on her forehead. Soothing words were murmured in her ear. _The Army is coming, _they told her. _The Army and Korra will find_ _Amon and make him face justice._

In her feverish state, Lin could only nod weakly and try not to be sick all over the bed.

At some point, Lin began to hallucinate. Either that, or she had fallen asleep and she was dreaming. She could not tell.

_She was five, pinned under the tickle-monster that was her Uncle Sokka, laughing and screeching._

_She was seven, sitting beside Kya and Bumi, watching Uncle Aang teach Tenzin how to airbend._

_She was ten. Her mother left her blindfolded in a cave, telling her to find her way out with her feet._

_She was thirteen. Tenzin kissed her on the cheek before flying away, his bald head completely red._

_She was fifteen and her mother taught her how to bend mental._

_She was eighteen, and her mother gave her her prized meteorite bracelet as her birthday present. _

_She was twenty when she joined the Police Force._

_She was twenty-seven when Tenzin asked her out on their first date as she came out of a long night on the beat._

_She was thirty when she got the gashes on her cheek._

_She was thirty-five when her relationship with Tenzin ended._

_She was forty as she accepted the title of Chief of Police. _

_She was forty-five when her mother died._

_And through the haze of all the memories, both good and bad, stepped her mother. Tall, strong, impenetrable, _mom_. Lin found herself pitching into her mother's arms, arms which wrapped around her lanky frame and held her close._

_"You did good, kid," she heard her mother's voice whisper as her hand stroked through Lin's matted hair. "You did good."_

* * *

"Her fever has broken but she's still very weak," she heard the voice of one of the Air Acolytes say through her delirium.

"Thank you for taking care of her while I was away," came the gravelly voice of a man she knew all too well.

"Tenzin?" she croaked.

"Lin!" It was him, she could tell by the sound of his footsteps, the subtle swish of his robes as he hurried over to her bedside. "Are you alright?"

"That bastard took my bending away. Of course I'm not alright." She coughed, her vision swimming into focus on the guilty look on Tenzin's face.

"This is all my fault," Tenzin bemoaned. "If I hadn't let you come—"

"If I hadn't gone with you, you and your family would have been captured by the Equalists!" Lin snapped. "Airbenders would cease to exist. So it's damn lucky I went with you. My bending is a small price to pay for the continuation of a race."

There was quiet.

"Meelo called you his hero," Tenzin whispered after a long stretch.

Lin's lips flickered into a small smile. "Is that so?" She paused for a moment, then, "I saw my mother, Tez." The childhood moniker fell from her lips before she could stop it.

"You're mother's dead," Tenzin said gently. "Has been for five years."

"I know," she whispered back. "I think...I think it was her spirit."

"What did she say?"

"She told me," Lin paused. "She told me I did good." Lin's lips softened into a smile. "She told me she was proud."

"That does sound like your mother," Tenzin agreed. "Perhaps it really was your mother's spirit."

Lin hmmm'd in response. Then silence reigned. Lin's eyes closed. Tenzin watched her for a while, then quietly stood from his seated position on the bed and started for the door.

"Where are you going?" Lin asked, her eyes still closed.

"To find Korra," Tenzin replied. "She'll need my guidance more than ever."

"I'm coming with you."

"No!" Tenzin exclaimed. "I absolutely forbid it! You need to rest!"

Lin snorted, her eyes opening. With great effort, she swung her legs out of bed and stood. "When will you learn you can't boss me around, Tenzin?"

Tenzin looked flustered. "But your bending—you can't fight! You'll only be—"

"A hindrance?" Lin snapped, taking a few wobbly steps towards him. "May I remind you it was a non-bender who single handedly crashed a Fire Nation balloon into another one and saved my mother and your uncle's life? I can fight just find without my bending, thank you."

Tenzin deflated. "Is there no stopping you?"

"Of course not," Lin huffed as she pushed past him and walked out, gaining steadier footsteps as she walked. "I just need to make a quick stop at the bank before we leave."

"What could you possible need at the bank?" Tenzin asked, trailing after her.

Lin looked over her shoulder and smirked. "I think it's time to retrieve the sword that's been in my deposit box gathering dust."

Then she turned on her heel and walked out into the courtyard where not twenty-four hours previously Amon had taken away her livelihood. Tenzin followed after her, helped her scale Oogi's back, then pointed them towards Republic City.

"Oogi, Yip Yip!"

* * *

**Fic Drabble: A Mother's Worry**

**-/-/-  
**

"Katara," Toph panted softly, exhausted with the pains of labor. "Is she… is she _blind_?"

Katara looked down at the little bundle in Toph's arms. The baby's eyes were big and alert, with no trace of the haziness that clouded her mother's eyes. "I think she can see just fine."

Toph's tired face immediately broke into a relieved grin.

"What are you going to name her?" Suki asked.

"Lin," Toph said immediately. "I'm going to name her Lin."


End file.
